summertime sadness
by doodlechick12
Summary: [Spoilers for Breaking Dawn Part Two] Companion to "the hanging tree." alice pretends, but jasper always knows.


Companion to 'the hanging tree.'

Disclaimer: I do not own the Twilight Saga.

Warnings: Spoilers for Breaking Dawn Part Two.

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**summertime sadness**

"_Come on skinny love just last the year  
Pour a little salt we were never here  
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my  
Staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer_

_I tell my love to wreck it all_  
_Cut out all the ropes and let me fall_  
_My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my_  
_Right in the moment this order's tall"_

Jasper knows.

He knows not the particulars, but his empathy is good for picking people apart and if necessary, used as an offensive weapon (emotions are powerful; if he can control an entire room of newborns to relax, he can make anyone angry enough to destroy each other or anguished enough to want to kill themselves.)

But his talent isn't needed with Alice.

He can tell that's something is bothering her the moment it happens, and he knows when it started: South America. The day had been sunny so they'd procured a hotel room to hide the day away. He'd left to pay for their stay and when he'd returned, Alice had been . . . off; flighty and almost tearful. It'd been a vision that she'd refused to tell him other than a vague, _"We just have to hurry a little bit. We have to find him and return to Forks as quickly as possible."_

He'd worried but soothed her feelings with a brush of his talents. The vision had almost been forgotten until the confrontation, where Alice showed it to Aro.

She didn't get any better.

Jasper doesn't know what to do.

Usually a bundle of hyperactive energy and so full of love that it bursts from her seams, Alice has been subdued and quiet. Withdrawn. It eats at him, gnawing at his insides as he wonders but doesn't want to reopen any mental wounds that are plaguing his little beloved.

He is not the only one who has noticed something is wrong; Edward discerns something, but he is holding steadfast in his apparent resolve to keep Alice's secrets. (And he can respect that, truly, but when there's something wrong with Alice, all reasoning quickly flies out the metaphorical window.)

He leaves it for the first couple of days after the confrontation with the Volturi (and wouldn't he just have loved to tear off Aro's head for threatening Renesmee and lusting after Alice and her gift) because he **is **sensitive to Alice's feelings. Everything slowly falls back to a relative normal (if having five wolves hang around the house be counted as normal) and even Carlisle goes back to the hospital.

Emmett and Rosalie are happier (and lustier), so Esme and Carlisle ask them if they'd like a break from Forks (they oblige, Rose only a little reluctant to leave Ness).

Bella and Edward are in their paradise, their perfect little piece of heaven on earth with their daughter (and Jacob). The wolf's pack hangs around more often than not (which has grown to include not just the pair of siblings but two of Jacob's friends as well; Embry and Quil).

But Alice . . .

Alice

Pretends

And

Jasper

Can

Tell

She shops and flits around, designing things and taking care of Ness, volunteering her and Jasper's babysitting services whenever Jacob and Edward and Bella are all busy. (Which happens more than one would think; the wolf still has to finish high school after all.)

But there's something missing from her eyes, some spark of cheerfulness. She keeps half of her gaze set into the future, almost as bad as when they were on the hunt for Nahuel. He knows that she thinks she's being discreet when she watches Jasper more carefully than before. She'll keep him in her sights almost all the time now (not that he minds; Alice, dancing lovely Alice, is his world) and she watches Carlisle and the others as if they'll slip away when she blinks.

Jasper knows.

He knows that her vision was brutal and while he may **not** know the specifics, he won't ask.

He'll leave it until she's ready to talk about it (_even if it takes eternity_).

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_A/N: I'm really unsure about this one. I started this with the same idea, but I ended up going in a completely different direction than what I had intended._

_Please drop a review giving me your thoughts_


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